Man arrested in home invasion, attack on couple

An Oak Ridge man was pistol-whipped about the head and face and his pregnant girlfriend was threatened with a gun when they apparently walked in on men burglarizing their home.

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By Beverly Majors/The Oak Ridger

Oakridger - Oak Ridge, TN

By Beverly Majors/The Oak Ridger

Posted Nov. 27, 2013 at 6:05 PM

By Beverly Majors/The Oak Ridger

Posted Nov. 27, 2013 at 6:05 PM

An Oak Ridge man was pistol-whipped about the head and face and his pregnant girlfriend was threatened with a gun when they apparently walked in on men burglarizing their home.

Oak Ridge police are still investigating the Friday night robbery at the 110 Dewey Road home in the Elm Grove neighborhood off of Delaware Avenue.

Police officers arrested one Scarboro neighborhood man after he crashed his car about 10 p.m. about a mile from the robbery scene on Delaware and are looking for additional suspects in the case.

Detective Kevin Craig charged 29-year-old Duran Maszae Lee, 280 S. Benedict Ave., with carrying a weapon to go armed, possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony, aggravated robbery, two counts of aggravated assault, tampering with evidence and possession of marijuana for sale.

Court records said the two victims came home and were accosted by at least two men. The 24-year-old male victim told police one suspect ran into the house while the other held him down. He said one of the suspects beat him with a pistol about the face and head. His 19-year-old girlfriend told police she passed out and fell onto the ground when one of the men pointed the handgun at her. She told police she’s in her ninth month of pregnancy.

The male victim told officers he went inside the house after the suspects fled and found his house in disarray and his safe missing, according to the court record. He said the safe contained about $3,000 — about $1,200 of which was in new $100 bills.

The suspects reportedly fled the scene in a Cadillac, which apparently later crashed into a utility pole in front of 508 Delaware.

Reports said Lee was still at the crash scene when officers arrived, but no other suspects were there. Officers reportedly found three plastic bags in one of Lee's pockets, which contained a substance believed to be marijuana. The bags contained about 21 grams of packaged pot, reports said.

Officers also found a gun on the ground near the crash scene and a witness allegedly told them she saw Lee near the same spot where the gun was found. Reports said the gun had blood on the cylinder.

Officers also reportedly found a safe in the Cadillac and $3,200 in Lee's underwear.

Lee was arrested and taken to the Anderson County jail. Lee has a long criminal history in Oak Ridge and was convicted of the sale of cocaine in 2010.

Lee was arrested in 2012 after he allegedly threatened a neighbor with a gun and was charged with aggravated assault in 2010 after he reportedly shot a man in the arm during an incident on South Benedict. He was convicted in that case earlier this year and was sentenced to four years of probation.

Page 2 of 2 - On the same day he shot the man in the arm, he was accused of threatening to shoot a woman and her toddler while they sat in a car. Lee was also linked to another shooting incident where a man was shot in the back of the head when a bullet was fired into the back window of his car in Scarboro. During the same time, residents in Scarboro reported bullets hit their house. Lee, however, was not charged in either case.

Lee pleaded guilty to the sale of cocaine in 2007 and was sentenced to five years of probation. He was arrested again on a cocaine charge in 2012 after a reported shooting incident in Scarboro where shots were fired from a car on South Dillard Avenue. When his car was stopped, officers reportedly found crack cocaine in the driver's side door.